Piracy is bad news! That is, if you are a big game company. If you are a pirate, then, I'm sure, it's all gravy. But big game companies like Sony are hoping to put an end to that freeloading gravy train.

A Sony Computer Entertainment patent from August 2011 that was published this month and unearthed by NeoGAF user Disorientator (via game site Darkzero) shows that Sony is working on tech to detect pirated software by measuring load times against what is considered the standard, and thus, acceptable, range. If the software does not fall within that range, it cannot be used.

The patent isn't only for physical media, but it can also be used for digital games, too.

It's unclear whether or not this tech will find its way onto PlayStation hardware in the future (rumor is that similar tech is already on the Xbox 360). If the tech does appear on Sony's consoles, smart money says the tech will just become yet another layer of onion for hackers to peel away.